Generalcomments

Dear all,

Thank you all for visiting, reading and sharing the news with me on the Fukushima Appeal Blog. I’ve kept it running since February 2012. Unfortunately, I will need some break now to attend to some of my health issues.

I would like to thank this blog and its supporters for giving me an opportunity to become a part of the slowly awakening global community during this very important time of global change. I had zero knowledge of nuclear before the Fukushima disaster, and was and still am a just normal citizen. It’s been hard to see Japan becoming a criminal, immoral and authoritarian country since the Fukushima Disaster. So it’s been a huge awakening and healing process to have a platform to speak out instead of feeling powerless, angry and sad about it. With the new secret law that is going to be introduced in Japan soon, Japanese people will need more help than at any other time in its history from foreign bloggers, doctors and scientists. Please remember Fukushima. I hope that the more difficulties we may encounter, the stronger and connected we will become to fight against injustice and be able to act from our heart space. (Mia)

The program starts with an interview with
Mr. Yukiteru Naka, a Japanese nuclear engineer who talks about a powerful group
that put cost effectiveness as their top priority. The group consists of
TEPCO, the Government, and the scientists within top universities, and they are
the ones involved in decision makings of national importance. He says
whoever tries anything against the grain of this prime directive gets met by
its powerful opposition. The documentary points finger to the climate of
criminal design of the group and supporting psychological inertia that has
together eventually lead to that final disaster that came to pass last year at
Fukushima. Earthquake and tsunami was just a trigger.

Then there is another testimony from Mr.
Kei Sugaoka, an engineer from the U.S. assigned to inspect the American
designed reactor, and he testifies to TEPCO's deliberate concealment of serious
mismanagements and accidents he witnessed during his employment. He says
Reactor 1 at Fukushima was operating with serious defects, and as the inspector
it was his job to report it but he was told by TEPCO to keep his mouth
shut. Out of fear of losing his job , he kept this to himself for 10
years, until after he was laid off and finally reported it to the nuclear
regulatory authority of Japan, but apparently they, too, squashed his reports.
Now, Mr. Eisaku Sato, the former governor of Fukushima had been warned by other
whistle-blowers just like this man who were likewise aware of
serious risks in the operation of the reactors in Fukushima, and the governor
tried to act upon it, only to find that instead of anything done about it, the
names of the whistle-blowers were given away to TEPCO. The governor then
disclosed it in a newspaper the risks of nuclear reactors, as well as TEPCO's
30 years of concealing various accidents. As a result of this TEPCO
resorted to reshuffling the top executive posts to account for it, but at the
same time orchestrated character assassination of the governor which led to his
resignation from the post. Naoto Kan, the former Prime Minister of Japan
recalls that in the last 10 - 20 years there's been pressure applied in every
possible way to prevent whistle-blowing about danger of nuclear power. Research
scientists who warn the risks would never see a chance for promotion in their
career, Politicians receive handsome supports from power companies depending on
the size of contribution to promote nuclear power. Same is true with
sports and media industries. There is an intricate network extending to
vast areas making it a problem of national scale. Almost everybody in Japan is
trapped in it. Kan says 100 MPs who receive such financial support from
electric companies includes his predecessor. Job opportunities for ministerial
bureaucrats after retirements are secured at affiliated companies within the
industry. Sometimes the executives of the industry are appointed to the
post of Energy Minister. An MP interviewed in this video documentary says
both central government and municipal governments have supported the illusion
that nuclear power is safe. Based on this myth, no precautionary measures
have ever been considered or conceived, and this time last year the myth was
broken. Kan says Nuclear power station was initially planned to be built
35 m above sea level. But TEPCO built it at 15 m above sea level, on the ground
that it made it easier to pump sea water for cooling, that it is more cost
effective. At the time of last year's accident, the power was cut first
by earthquake, then the emergency power source got submerged by tsunami. Kan
says in the same interview that he was not informed of these facts at the time,
and how he got to know about the explosion was from TV. He thinks TEPCO
owes responsibility to explain the situation despite all the difficulties to
arrive at any solution. He states further that although TEPCO has known
of the meltdown as early as on the very day of the earthquake and tsunami, they
insisted that they had no knowledge of meltdown until early May, while the rest
of the world was well aware of the inevitability. The climate of concealing
massive data has not changed to this date. They provide their data to the
daily press conference, but keep insisting the situation is under
control. Unbelievable as it is, among the data provided by TEPCO are some
facts that makes one wonder if everything IS under control - this goes to
things like the disappearance of contaminated cooling water due to the
hosepipes getting pierced by ....growing weeds???... To this TEPCO tries
their NOW-infamous phrase "unexpected in our estimation".

Another interview with Mr.
Yukiteru Naka. He owns a company with 80 engineers working under him;
they work at the Fukushima nuclear disaster site. Mr. Naka says his
gravest concern is one day they run out of workers. Whoever works at the
site gets irradiated very quickly above the limit, and he doesn't think there
will be enough workers with sufficient skills. Even if it's possible to
secure professionals to work at the site for the next 40 years, (In case you
are not aware, this 40 years is the length of time that takes before they can
stat decommissioning, not before) he says there remains one problem that may
change the whole of Japan and the world. He is very very worried about
the state of Reactor 4 spent fuel pool. He knows it will not withstand
the impact of the next big earthquakes that is now said to be due. All six
reactors at the site then become impossible to control. - Armageddon, that's
the word the presenter chose to describe it. And his concern is well
justified since in the next interview with Mr. Hideki Shimamura who is a
renowned seismologist talks about this earthquake as having 75 percent
probability of occurring within 4 years.

Last interview was with Mr. Isao
Shirai, who is in charge of disaster countermeasures office, 60km away from the
crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant. This office was set up by Tepco,
Nuclear safety agency, Fukushima prefectural government. When Mr. Shirai
was questioned about earthquake-resistance of nuclear power plants in Japan by
the ZDF presenter, he could only say “I found the question difficult to
answer.” after long silence.------------------------------------- It’s a great report by
German video. I wish this kind of report were broadcast in the main
stream TV in Japan and UK. I feel very sad about so much control over the
media which most Japanese people are not aware of. Whenever this group of
Nuclear power was accused of not enough information to the public, they say “We
don’t want to cause the panic.”. Aren’t we talking about people’s life?
Of course they need to know. I didn’t know anything about
radiation/nuclear world till March 11 last year, but I’ve come to notice there
are so many manipulations over the media even for my eyes as normal
citizen. When they don’t tell a lie, they only give out a bit of it so I
often have to read several reports on the same topic to get the whole meaning
of it. They often use different unit, I bet it’s a deliberate, to explain
the amount of radiation which is rather confusing. When there were
reports of death of Tepco workers, the articles were short, saying radiation
level they were exposed wasn’t that high… Further investigation to follow… and
we never get to hear any more news about it. Also Tepco and the
government only give out data and information a little bit at a time.
Unless I research and follows the news on a daily basis it’s easy to miss
what’s going on. So it’s really great to see all the fact together.
(Mia June)

The $8.3 Billion
taxpayer loan for construction of two new reactors at the Vogtle site in
Georgia, the centerpiece of the Obama Administration's support for the
"nuclear renaissance," may be blocked--by the Obama Administration.

Friday, 30 March 2012

Ms. Noro, who lives in Kushiro in Japan’s northern
island of Hokkaido, has been working as a volunteer organizing one-month stays
with host families for Chernobyl children near whereshe lives for the past 19 years. Over the years, she has learned a lot about
the dangers of radiation and how we can protect children from it. She has
not invited any moreChernobyl children since the disaster, because she feels unable to
provide them with a safe enough environment in Japan now.Since the disaster,she has been touring around Japan,
giving lectures and sharing her valuable knowledge and experience. She
also organizes occasional ad - hoc clinics with volunteer doctors when possible for worried parents
whose children have developed symptoms such as nosebleeds, headaches, nausea, painful joints,
and diarrhea and so on. If these parents
take their children to their usual doctors, they just say [Don’t worry, it’s nothing
to do with radiation.] and give the children antibiotics to stop diarrhea
if they have it, and then give them more if they come back.She said that most doctors don’t know how to
treat patients with radiation sickness.Antibiotics don’t cure the symptoms. She
suggests that such patients need to stop taking any radioactively polluted food
and drink, eat food full of enzymes such as fermented foods like miso and pickles,and fresh fruit such as bananas and apples, to help to repair the
DNAdamaged by the radiation, keep up a healthy immune system in
the body and also rest if they get tired easily. Ideally they should
be evacuated into a safe area, but if they can’t, at least they should regularly
be taken somewhere safe for some time to give their bodies a chance to
repair the damaged DNA. The worried parents found her advice really
helpful. Ms. Noro reported
that some weaker children first got nosebleeds and diarrhea two months
after the disaster, then some children who were normally fine started to
present the same symptoms. These were followed by other symptoms such as
lack of concentration and appropriate body weight gain, getting tired easily,
forgetting things, and having difficulty understanding school lessons.This has been happening not just with
children in Fukushima, but also with some children in the Kanto area, including
Tokyo.
Although the number of children who have developed such symptoms is relatively
small considering how many children thereare, Ms. Noro predicts serious consequences in the future if
children are kept in the contaminated area for longer periods.

I have also heard from other reports that 45 per cent
of 1,080 children under 15 in Fukushima prefecture have tested positive for
thyroid exposure to radiation. This result came from a health survey done
by Fukushima prefecture under the guidance of Prof Yamashita. Many
citizens in Fukushima declined take part in this survey, feeling as if they had
beentreated as guinea pigs because of his misleading safety campaign
last year, which resulted in many adults and children being exposed to
radiation unnecessarily. Although the
number of children who participated in this survey is relatively small, I think
it is significant enough to say that Fukushima is not safe for children to
stay in. Ms. Noro has suggested that all the children in the affected
area should receive ablood test and an echocardiography examination twice a year todetect signs of illness at the earliest stage. She warns thatchildren livingin Fukushima need to be evacuated as soon as possible before it is
too late.

Thursday, 29 March 2012

The largest, most important, anti-nuclear protest you don't know about is in southern India

Million people within 30km of Koodankulam
Nuclear Power Project

Dr. S.P. Udayakumar (Kumar to
his friends) is a longtime leader in the peaceful resistance to nuclear power
in India, as well as a leader in the NIRS/WISE International Network. The Indian government has threatened to
charge him with terrorism and “Waging war” for his role in leading the
nonviolent citizens movement against operation of the nearly-completed
Kudankulam Nuclear reactors in the Tamilnadu section of India …

Tuesday, 27 March 2012

There were 2 hour long program over the 2 weeks nearer to March 11 anniversary. I
watched the programs. They were well documented
and featuring how children have been feeling from their point of view which was
very touching. I heard lots of good
comments from my friends who watched, especially
about the second one with children in Minami Soma-city. However I was disappointed with these
reasons. First one was focused on first
a few weeks of what happened at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, but I
think it gave an impression that it was about “the past” because it never
mentioned what’s been happening till now even there has been continuous leaking
of the radiation into the air and the sea.
What about reactor 4? It could
potentially bring even more catastrophe than ever. “The greatest tsunami in 1,000 years”
which was used by BBC2 program was a phrase once used by Tepco, then later it
was criticized as a wrong expression in Japan. I read a report which said the highest wave
that hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was 15m. In 2008 Tepco submitted their report in which
said over 15 m height of wave could hit the plant, but they dismissed their own
calculation and did nothing to implement their report. Tepco shouldn’t have really said one in 1000
years and unimaginable, it is more like one
in 100 years, and it showed how un-responsible company Tepco is. I
wonder if BBC did their own research for making these programs. If you look at Japanese history, there was a
huge tsunami with highest wave 38.2m hit the east coast of Japan in 1896 which
came after magnitude -8.5 earthquake, resulting in 22,000 people dead.

Also
I would like to comment on “Iodine tablet”. Japanese government never instructed citizens in the affected area to
take the tablet. People who took it
were Tepco people’s family as they knew the danger, and also citizens in Miharu-machi
where they decided to take it voluntarily without waiting for the government’s
instruction. So it is doubtful that in
the first program one father giving her daughter the iodine tablet. Even if he did, it doesn’t represent at all
for most of citizens. Also there isn’t any single case of children who
already suffered radiation related symptoms such as nose bleeding, diarrhea 2
months after the explosions. Children
who already have these symptoms are not just worried about their future as it
said in BBC program, but worried about what’s happening in their body right now
as well.

It
seems that BBC doesn’t want to broadcast anything that might the citizens to
stir up anti-nuclear movement. When
there were so many demonstrations going on towards and around March 11 this
year, I heard nothing about them in the main stream media.

A Japanese friend of our community attended
the Ceremony of Remembrance to mark one year after the 3.11 Earthquake and
Tsunami at the Embassy of Japan in London.

According to her, she thought that the
Ambassador, Keiichi Hayashi's speech was so arrogant and insensitive. For
example, he said "Japan had been the biggest donor of foreign aid for many
years but now we have become a recipient and we humbly accept it."
(She thought why he simply didn't say "we were overwhelmed and moved by
people's kindness and encouragements from all over the world.)

He then went on to glorify Japan, saying
"how wonderfully we have been coping with the after mass of the disaster
and recoveries have been seen in lots of areas." He also emphasized
that there is no need to worry about the radioactive affects in Fukushima and
the surrounding areas. He carried on by saying, "To prove the safety
of the food, we are going to serve you sushi, sake and vegetable canapés which
ingredients are from Fukushima."

About 500 people who attended the ceremony
were served with the so called "absolutely safe and delicious
food"!

She thought that the Ambassador is a typical
Japanese bureaucrat and has been brainwashed not to raise any questions.
Although 70% of people who attended the ceremony were Japanese, however
"The Ceremony of Remembrance" was like propaganda of "The safe
Japan and The Resilient Japanese".

----------------------------------------

According
to my friend’s experience, Mr. Hayashi is underestimating the danger of
radiation, not aware of what’s going on at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. I think he should know that more and more
tragedy is happening in Chernobyl even after 27 years later.

Evacuation

In Fukushima there was 2 million population including 360,000 children.

The Japanese government evacuated about 100,000 (87,000 out of 20km radios of the plant), and most of them are still in Fukushima prefecture. 65% of Fukushima prefecture became the radiation control area (a level of the contamination is more than 37,000Bq/m2), so therefore most of them are still in radioactively contaminated area unless they evacuated out of Fukushima prefecture into safe area voluntarily without any financial help from the government. Voluntary evacuees within Fukushima prefecture is 23,551, voluntary evacuees out of Fukushima prefecture is 27,776 as of 22/9/11. Even Fukushima-city which is 50km away from the plant is no longer safe, especially for children. The government statistics shows that only about 36,000(including about 20,000children, ) left Fukushima prefecture. And most of them left Fukushima Prefecture voluntarily without any financial support from the government.(October 2012)

Food Safaty

Amount of allowable ionizing radiation in foodincluding rice in Japan is now 100BQ/kg for cesium.

So this could mean that contaminated food which they can’t sell in Japan could be exported to the countries that have more relaxed regulations, such as EU countries and Thai (500) and Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippine, Vietnam, Malaysia (1000) and USA (1200).

*A Woman Who Refuses to Give In to A New Nuke PlantPlease send her a postcard: Atsuko Ogasawara, owner of “Asako House”, built in the center of the planned Ohma Nuclear Power Plant premises. She would appreciate it if you could send a post card (just with a few words is ok). Receiving a mail as much as possible helps her position to keep up anti nuclear campaign. Here is “Asako House”’s address: Ms. Atsuko Ogasawara, c/o Asako House, 396 Aza Ko-okoppe, Oh-aza Ohma, Ohma Machi, Shimokita Gun, Aomori

ＧＥＮＥＲＡＬ ＩＮＦＯＲＭＡＴＩＯＮ

Fukushima disaster is not over. It seems getting worse. Continuous leaking of ionizing radiation into the atmosphere (10million Bq/hour or more) and into the sea.. There seems no end and no solution to stop it. There is no good result in decontamination work. 27 children developed thyroid cancer. More reports of deformed babies. More people of dying of leukemia and sudden death.… Yet the Japanese Government wants all evacuees to go back to their home land by 2020. Even trying to sell nuclear to other countries, claiming it’s going to be safe. I hope information from this blog to give you views from the victim’s side of stories, health issues and related information on nuclear disaster, especially about Fukushima disaster. We should remember and learn lessons from ongoing tragedy happening in Chernobyl and Fukushima.

100% nuclear free: Japan shut down its last reactor on 15/9/13 – There has been no shortage of electricity since 3.11

*IAEA ＆ WHO downplays the danger of radiation. (Refer to the comment on Feb.2012)

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant up date news

(October 10, 2012)

The Fukushima disaster is far from over, with 10million BQ every hour of ionizing radiation (80% is coming out of reactor 2) leaking continuously into the air (as of October, 2012). No human can get near to the reactors. Even robot can only stay a couple of hours. Reactor 4 is still the most worrying, with 1535 spent fuel rods in the pool. A further6, 375 spent fuel rods are stored in a shared pool only 50 meters away from the Reactor 4. After the disaster, the maximum allowable dose of ionized radiation was raised to 250mSv/yfrom 100 mSv/y for Tepco workers (3000 workers every day) until the situation is restored to normal. Because of the dangerously high level of ionized radiation at the site, they can only work for a limited time, which makes progress slow, and more and more workers have been exposed to the maximum radiation, which means that it could be difficult to find enough people to work there continuously during the next at least 40 years work of decommissioning.

Nobody knows how and when we will be able to say that the Fukushima disaster is over.